mahaloco

My immaculate 06 anthracite TL was in a slight accident last night. I was stopped at a red light half way merged into a left turn lane. When the light turned green, the car that was behind me hit the gas and rammed the driver's side of my car. The front door and the rear door are dinged up and my paint is all scratched.

If anyone can recommend a good body shop near Pasadena or Los Angeles I would appreciate it greatly.

Will the body shop have to repaint my whole car or only the doors? I wish that I could get brand new factory painted doors installed, but I realize that insurance would never pay for that.

If only the doors are painted, will they be able to match the rest of my car? Or for that matter, can any body shop match the anthracite color perfectly? I am worried about the difficulty of matching the metalic nature of this paint.

If the whole car needs to be repainted, are there any special coats or processes that I should ask for from the body shop and my insurance to make the new paint job even better (if possible) than the original paint job in anthracite?

Sory if this post is too long, but I am really bummed out about this right now.

Thank you.

ziggyh22

iTrader: (3)

Contact this Body Shop
California Cars
425 W Cypress St
Glendale, CA 91204
(818) 265-1078

They are actualy one of my customers. They have my 07 TL right now and they are fixing the damage that was done to my car by some idiot who hits my car at Target and takes of without even leaving a note. And they are going to install the Non-type S A-spec kit on my car. The cars that they mostly work on are Lexus,BMW and Mercedes and most of the dealerships down Brand Blvd they do really good work and they even do custom applications. Just ask for Eddie or Adrien and tell them Ryan from AT&t sent you and they will take care of you. Just stop by there and they will answer any questions that you may have! G.L hope this helps!

mahaloco

Thanks for the info. I will check them out.

lawwoo11

You can check out John Au's AutoBody in Rosemead. My buddy Henry (see link below) has been going to that shop for the last 2 accidents he's had. I saw his car last weekend in person and you couldn't even tell there was a dent in it.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169938

John Au is very honest and will get the job done right. He may not be the cheapest, just letting you know, but I've learned the hard way many times with my other car - You get what you pay for.

Hope this helps!

lawwoo11

EDIT: Here is his info.

John Au's Auto Body
(626) 288-6920
9057 Garvey Ave
Rosemead, CA 91770

I'll try to get my friend to update his post to show the results.

JetJock

Dude...don't worry!! I had someone back into my driver side door this past summer. The body shop was going to reskin the door, but ended up pulling out the dents because the reskin would be more noticable when you look inside the door near the seams. They had to repaint the whole left side of the car...bumper to bumper...including the strip along the roof but the results were amazing. Even my detail guy can't tell the repainted area from the factory new paint. I've got Anthracite...don't worry. If you get the whole left side of the car painted....you won't notice. Just don't let them blend the paint...make sure they paint everything. PM me if you'd like more details about what they did to match the paint.

JetJock

BTW.....someone told me to take my car where all the rich people take their cars. I checked out several Body Shops.....the one I went to worked mostly on high end German Cars. They had a brand new shop...it was immaculate inside. The other shops were dirty, had cheaper cars inside...and just didn't look like they would do a good paint job although they were recommended. Trust your instinct about the shop..if it's clean....they will probably do good work. Dust and paint don't mix.

jzacuto

Undoubtedly and without any hesitation, I'd suggest going to Canoga Auto Body.

www.canogaautobody.com

I've had lots of work done there over the last 15 years -- minor and major. I bought a black `90 Camaro in 1993 for $7,500 that came back looking so good that when I sold it two years later, I actually MADE money. (They repainted the whole car with an amazing high-gloss lacquer!) Also took a 2000 Accord Coupe there with some substantial body damage and it came back pristine.

Even three weeks after I got my TL, a valet scratched the rear bumper on a pole and Canoga offered to buff it out for free. (It looked better, but the valet really did a number for a small scratch!)

I would never -- EVER -- take my car anywhere else for body work.

PS - Their shop is in an industrial park in Canoga Park and they work on everything from high end cars to bucket model Kias. It's always covered in dust and crammed full of cars being worked on. Don't let the condition of the shop or the kinds of cars a place works on sway your decision. (The fact that they're always so full with cars needing work says something!)

Remember: The proof is in the pudding, not the package it came in!

mahaloco

Thanks everyone for all of the input. I do have one question though. How big is the visual difference between a paint blend and a total repaint of the whole side of the car? It sounds like a total repaint of the side would be riskier.

MorganPerez

I would just make sure you have a good shop, and not worry about it. My TL is Anthracite and I had the rear bumper blended and a lower rocker panel, they both had damage, scratches and gouges, and for $150 I can't tell.

mahaloco

Here is the verdict from the body shop (Unicar in Pasadena):

They are going to re-skin both doors on the driver's side and repaint (blend) the whole side of my car. This means that they need to take apart the whole side of the car (Side mirror, trim, rocker panel, door skins, fender) and put it back together. I hope to get my car back the way that I give it to them (no new rattles, messed up seams on the door skins, or loose parts) minus the damage.

mahaloco

My car came back looking great!!! You can't even tell that anything ever happened.